Last night we missed yet another riot in Zurich. This time it wasn’t anything as fun as a teenage boy band or an international soccer victory for Switzerland. Instead, it was a demonstration against the anti-immigrant laws that the Swiss voted into effect yesterday. This vote will severely tighten the political asylum laws of Switzerland, and also make things more difficult for all non-European foreigners looking to live and work in Switzerland.
We were eating dinner outside at a downtown restaurant when we heard and saw three police vehicles go by. These were followed by several vans filled with police in riot gear. We could only guess that they were going to the ‘demonstration’ that we had heard about on the tram (in the form of an announcement explaining why some trams were being diverted). By the time we finished eating and headed up to Central ourselves (reluctant parents in tow), the demonstration had moved on, and there were only a few remnants to show it had ever been there. According to this article in 20 Minuten, there were about 400 demonstrators, and the protest came to some mild altercations between police and demonstrators (rubber bullets were used).
The UN has come out against the results of the Swiss vote.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!